Just like any other
by angfdz
Summary: Mamoru breaks up with Usagi. How she feels afterwards. A short.


In the end, their relationship was like any other.

They might have survived two separate reincarnations, and found each other against all odds, but Usagi and Mamoru's relationship was still two people trying to understand one another. And failing, apparently.

It had been four days.

The first day, after the initial shock had left her, she had cried. Big heart wrenching sobs that only ended when she started to choke. She had felt her heart drop to her feet, and her stomach settle into knots. She had only had the courage to tell Rei what had happened. She had explained the situation through her tears, choking again until her friend forced her to drink some water.

"He broke up with me." And then, sounding like a scared, lost child, "I don't understand. I don't understand what happened."

Mamoru. She loved him. He was everything she was not. Intelligent, reserved, strong, and confident. She had thought the way he had been distancing himself would pass. She'd tried to get him to open up, but each time she had failed. Her boyfriend would lapse into a slow, uneasy silence. It weighed heavily on both of them, although Usagi tried to act cheerful despite her doubts. If she wore her heart on her sleeve, Mamoru was the opposite, keeping his heart deep inside himself.

Despite the very obvious love he had for her, it had taken him a month of begging for him to finally be able to say it out loud to her.

And now he would never say it out loud again.

The second day, Usagi had found herself alone. Of course she had told her friends. But Ami was on vacation with her mother, Rei was busy at the temple, Makoto was teaching a martial arts class for kids, and Minako had a volleyball tournament. She didn't blame them, they had their own lives. Each of them kept sending her short encouraging messages over their communicators, but it wasn't enough. Everything reminded her of him.

There weren't words to describe the deep and totally complete loneliness she felt. Mamoru was her other half. He supported her and she supported him... or that was what she had thought. But he had stopped speaking to her, hadn't been able to say what was wrong with him. For three months she had tried to keep them together. Ignoring the many times he had sat in her presence, completely consumed by some thought.

"Mamo-chan? What are you thinking about?" She had asked when he seemed particularly morose, leaning on his chest comfortably.

"Hm...Nothing." He had replied, as he always did. Usagi trusted that if it was important enough he would tell her, but even so, she worried.

"Nothing like what?" It was irritating. How could someone be thinking nothing? Words were constantly going through her brain. She couldn't imagine what it was like in his... silent... lonely? She hoped not. She was there after all.

"Nothing, Usako."

Variations of that conversation had happened so often that it made her angry. But Usagi recognized that Mamoru was one of the most important people in her life. No matter how much he annoyed her, how much he kept himself closed off from her, she couldn't stop loving him.

The third day, her mother had intervened. Usagi had not stopped eating, or brushing her teeth. She wasn't eating chocolate ice cream, or watching sad movies and crying. Instead she'd find herself suddenly crying in the middle of a conversation, unsure what had brought it on. So she had told her mother, and mama-Ikuko had held her while she cried yet again.

"Usagi... it sounds like this is something he needs to work out on his own." She murmured, stroking her childs hair rhythmically, "Men, sometimes they can't talk about the things they feel... it'll be good for you. You can start your own projects, concentrate on your schoolwork, your friends. Oh Usagi..."

Usagi didn't know how not to talk to him. It seemed like she saw him everywhere she went, an action which sent a bolt of adrenaline up her spine, excitement, hope, anticipation. Surely he would ask her back. Surely he would hold her again. It couldn't actually be over...right?

But it was.

Usagi might have been Princess of Moon in her past life, but here and now she was Usagi Tsukino. A young girl with a broken heart, just like so many others. There was nothing special about it. Every girl went through these things. Every girl experienced the deep sort of hurt that could only come from the one you loved, taking that love and casting it away.

She spent the next few days with her friends, letting herself be distracted, allowing herself private moments for depression to seep in, but keeping her mind busy otherwise. She needed to live. She wouldn't let herself become a husk. She was more than that. She would become stronger, better for him.

Mamoru had said he would love her forever, and Usagi believed him. She believed _in_ him. And if he ever decided to come back to her, she would be ready. A better, stronger person after their separation. And they would be stronger together. Of that, she was sure.

But it hurt all the same.


End file.
